Ramunas Antanaitis Ramunas Antanaitis Karina Džermeikaite Karina Džermeikaite Justina Krištolaityte Justina Krištolaityte Samanta Arlauskaite Samanta Arlauskaite Akvile Girdauskaite Akvile Girdauskaite Kotryna Tolkaciovaite Kotryna Tolkaciovaite Renalda Juodžentyte Renalda Juodžentyte Aiste Labokojyte Aiste Labokojyte Greta Šertvytyte Greta Šertvytyte Gabija Lemboviciute Gabija Lemboviciute Walter Baumgartner Walter Baumgartner MDPI 2025 During dental scaling in dogs under general anaesthesia, contamination of the peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) is unavoidable due to splatter and the generated aerosol. Bacterial contamination was compared between two commonly used PIVC placement sites. Thirty-nine client-owned dogs with a minimum length from their nose to their tail base of 50 cm were randomly assigned to receive a PIVC in either their cephalic or saphenous vein. Irrespective of the PIVC placement site, brain heart infusion agar dishes were placed in the cephalic and saphenous vein areas. Their lids were closed 0, 5, and 10 min into the procedure. Contamination was measured by counting the colony-forming units after incubation on different substrates. The data were analysed with descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and ANCOVA (p< 0.05). The cephalic vein area showed a significantly higher bacterial load than the saphenous vein area (p ≈ 0.0) regardless of the length of the dog. Furthermore, the dorsal PIVC injection ports were sampled before and after scaling, and the colonies isolated were counted and subjected to MALDI-TOF-MS for identification. The bacteria mainly belonged to the genera Staphylococcus, Neisseria, and Bacillus. Our results suggest that for dental scaling in dogs, the PIVC should be placed in the pelvic limb whenever possible to reduce the potential risk of contamination. PDFDocument eng 2025-03-12T10:11:54.015888Z 2025 System Health Fiber 1820389 b application/pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/